The Haunting of Hillside School

Cabin Creek Mysteries #4

by Kristiana Gregory

It's a new school year in Cabin Creek and the cousins have a new mystery. When Claire and David look out the art room window and see a girl's pale face, they suspect it's a ghost. How else could someone look into a second floor window and just disappear? As the cousins investigate, they find other peculiar piano music lilting through the halls, the aroma of pumpkin pie, and a crooked old painting that looks like the ghost's face. Is their spooky old school house really a haunted house?
Each of the six books in this series feature atmospheric spot art throughout.

This is #4 in the series.

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Fiction, Juvenile

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Kristiana Gregory grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, two blocks from the ocean. She's always loved to make up stories [ask her family!], telling her younger siblings whoppers that would leave them wide-eyed and shivering. Her first rejection letter at age ten was for a poem she wrote in class when she was supposed to be doing a math assignment. She's had a myriad of odd jobs: telephone operator, lifeguard, camp counselor, reporter, book reviewer & columnist for the LA Times, and finally author.

Her award-winning books include STALKED, which earned the 2012 Gold Medal for Young Adult Mystery from Literary Classics and is hailed as "historical fiction with a thrilling twist." KIRKUS calls it "an atmospheric confection that will thrill YA readers ... Gregory achieves a realistic, rich atmosphere with insightful details about the immigration process and New York tenements in the early 1900s." Now available on Kindle and in paperback.

JENNY OF THE TETONS [Harcourt] won the Golden Kite Award in 1989 and was the first of two-dozen historical novels for middle grade readers. Several of Kristiana's titles are now available on Kindle including "Curiously Odd Stories: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2" with the celebrated 'Paper Monument', a futuristic book-banning with horrific consequences.

BRONTE'S BOOK CLUB [Holiday House] is set in a town by the sea and is inspired by the girls' book club Kristiana led for several years.

Her most recent title with Scholastic's Dear America series is CANNONS AT DAWN, a sequel to the best-selling THE WINTER OF RED SNOW, which was made into a movie for the HBO Family Channel.

New re-releases in ebooks and paperback on Amazon:
**PRAIRIE RIVER SERIES #1-4
**ORPHAN RUNAWAYS: THE PERILOUS ESCAPE TO BODIE
**CABIN CREEK MYSTERIES #7: THE PHANTOM OF HIDDEN HORSE RANCH
**THE WAITING LIGHT: CLEMENTINE'S STORY -- originally titled "My Darlin' Clementine" [Holiday House] this riveting historical mystery takes place in an Idaho mining camp of 1866, and was Idaho's representative for the 2010 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Library of Congress.

Kristiana and her husband have two adult sons, and live in Idaho with their two golden retrievers. In her spare time she loves to swim, walk, hike, read, and hang out with friends. She's trying to learn to knit, but isn't yet having much success.

Check out Kristiana's blogs at http://notesfromthesunroom.blogspot.com/ for behind-the-scenes stories about her books, and with photos from her childhood.

Reviews

[Denise Spicer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Number four in the Cabin Creek Mystery series, this cute 130 page book showcases small town grade school sleuths. Cousins Claire, David, and Jeff learn some history (the 1918 flu epidemic), help save their school from being torn down, and find a new friend! Cover art is uncredited.

[Emily C · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book was pretty good, because I enjoyed the way the children, Claire, Jeff and David went to the attic after seeing and hearing strange things, I was hooked on the book in the first couple sentences needed to know the rest of the story. I also enjoy how the author really describes what's happening, I almost felt like I was one of the three children. I highly recommend this book to any ghost lovers.

[fanboyriot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this more than I was expecting. It has a cozy autumn atmosphere to it that felt nostalgic.

Read For
✓ Mystery
✓ Short Story
✓ Ghost Vibes
✓ Juvenile Fiction
✓ Nostalgic Vibes

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

Spice Level: n/a
Sad Level: n/a

Plot: 8/10
Pace: 8/10
Ending: 8/10
Characters: 6/10
Enjoyability: 7/10
Writing Style: 7/10
Would I Recommend? Yes
Favorite Character: n/a

Favorite Quote: ❝ No one could’ve played Mozart on this old thing,” he said. “It’s way out of tune.” ❞

POV: Third Person
Pages: 176
Format: Audiobook
Language: English
Release Date: 01, September 2008

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Claire and David see a girl looking in the window of their second floor classroom, but when they go to look out the window, no one is there. They along with Jeff are out to solve the mystery, and prove the school does not have a ghost in it. Clues abound as the trio discover something quite startling about their school's history.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three cousins notice strange happenings at their historic school. They want to solve the mystery of the ghost of a girl who died in the 1918 pandemic. This book was a flashback to my childhood reading Nancy Drew and Baby-Sitters club. It was a good mystery for elementary students, and I enjoyed the setting and story.

[Joseph M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a group of kids that think there is a ghost in the attic of there school and they try and ivestigate the attic and then they go up and.... I recommend you read this book if you want to find out what happens next.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was organizing my classroom library and thought this book looked interesting so I brought it home to read. Decent read for an 8 - 11 year olds.

[Adrianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun "haunted" story that isn't too scary

[Norah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one I got my hopes up so high for the house to be haunted, but the ending was so lame.

[Ilesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mystery
130 pages
This book by Kristiana Gregory is about Claire, David, and Jeff. All three go to Hillside School. One day at school, Claire thinks she saw a ghost outside of the window. After investigating a few things, she convinves the other two that the ghost is real. There uncle tells them a story about how there is a conspiracy about a ghost named Nettie Tuttle that haunts the school. While all of this is happening, there are talks going around to take down the school and build them into condos. The three think that Nettie may be haunting the school to stop it from being taken down. Another reason why they are convinced there is a ghost is because one day they here a piano playing and a pastry smell. They go to the room that the piano is playing but as soom as they open the door its stops and as soon as the close it it starts. The school also has not owned a piano and because of budget cuts cut the baking class.
Overall I liked this book, nut somethings could be better. I liked that the book was not unecessarily lengthy as mystery books can get boring if that happens. However, the book should have been more complex. For example, there could have been more characters and a more intense plot.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haunting of Hillside School
Kristina Gregory
Haunting of Hillside School is about 3 kids, brothers and their cousin, who think their school is haunted. They hear a rumor about a girl who did in the school and they keep hearing the playing of piano and smelling cinnamon. There is another rumor about men who want to tear down the school to build condos. They need to find out why the ghost is haunting the school and how I stop the school from being torn down.

This book was good but it was more for children. The font was big with double spacing. It was only 130 pages and the language was directed towards kids. There was not really any big words and the sentences and dialogue was short.

I recommend this book to elementary schoolers who like mystery. I found this book very boring because it was too young for me. Middle schoolers and older definitely should not read it. The dialogue and suspense is more for elementary schoolers so they would be perfect for this book.

[Vishaal S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

October 9, 2012
Kristiana Gregory
Mystery
This book is about 3 cousins that investigate their old old school building, they think the school is haunted because Claire, the youngest cousin saw a pale face in the window of the attic with a light inside. Claire thought it was a ghost, David the second youngest cousin thought they should investigate to see what it is. They go down to the music wing to pick up their oldest cousin, Jeff. Then they smell a strong odor coming from a room. They find the smell in a old dusty storage room.

I liked this book because I liked some of the scary parts in it. An example of a scary part is when David falls into a hole of a damp basement. I liked the plot line of the book and I like the ending where the find out who was really up there. It was a new girl that just moved to Cabin Creek.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.

http://spreadthewordnevada.org/

Myself, I go out on the weekends and
shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.

I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.

[Bellezza · Rating 3 out of 5]

My third graders are loving the genre of mystery. I first read them The Yellow House Mystery, from the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Now that they consider themselves Junior Detectives, they're all about solving the case before the book is finished. This one also met with their approval, and even had my interest engaged as each chapter ends with you wanting to find out what happens next.

[Britt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version because it was the only Autumn-Halloween type book available with no holds from my library app. It's a rather lame children's book that is out-of-touch with today. Although it was written in 2008, the story seemed like it was from 1950 with kids running around the neighborhood with no supervision. I could look past that if the story was interesting, but it's crap compared to the popular kid's books today.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading this book to my girls! It was so fun! They loved it too-it was a bit spooky for them at first, but it all turns out really simply and perfect for young ones in the end. I am definitely looking for more of this series to read to my girls.

[Spencer P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was reading this book all the clues gave me predictions of what might happen next. and this series remind me of the A to Z Misteries series for example there are two boys and one girl. And they both solve misteries and in the begining of the book there is a map of the town.

[Lauren Estes · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is one of the best books I have ever read. The cosions find mysteries and i like mysteries. my favoritpart is when they find neties room and a girl is in it.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute little mystery that is perfect for second-fourth grade. I love how moral and social issues were intertwined throughout the story.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a third grader, so maybe that's why I didn't particularly like this book. To me, it was poorly written and had some really unbelievable things that happened--that were all explained away.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason I actually really liked this book. I was in grade 4 back when I read it, but still I loved it and I still love it today. Worth a read, unless you're old

[Mr. K · Rating 2 out of 5]

The kids from Cabin Creek do an excellent job solving their newest mystery.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a little scary but it was an awesome book.

[Kelli Shearron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an older book, but I enjoy mystery stories like this one. It's an exciting read and any student in your class that enjoys mystery stories would enjoy this one.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is from a series called Cabin Creek Mysteries. It would probably interest younger readers since it hints at ghosts. It's a quick easy read for us older reader but not all that exciting.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Kyra Scanlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with my Target Time group (4th grade). Good practice with making predictions.

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little scary but amazingly good

[Mariann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all the Cabin Creek Mysteries, I think they're awesome!

[Avreen]

good